Move to Widen Support for Syria Rebels Gains Speed

Secretary of State John Kerry with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday at a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations in London.

Pool photo by Peter Macdiarmid

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER

April 10, 2013

LONDON — A long-debated move by Western nations to expand support for Syria’s opposition gained momentum on Wednesday, with the United States poised to increase its nonlethal aid to rebel groups and pressure building to lift a European Union embargo on sending arms to Syria.

In Washington, administration officials said President Obama had not yet signed off on a specific package of measures, but had agreed in principle to increase assistance to the military wing of the Syrian opposition that could include battlefield gear like body armor and night-vision goggles, but not arms.

“Our assistance has been on an upward trajectory, and the president has directed his national security team to identify additional measures so that we can increase assistance,” a senior administration official said.

In London, where the British foreign secretary, William Hague, hosted a meeting with the Syrian opposition on Wednesday, there were signs that Britain and France were prepared to let the European Union arms embargo expire by the end of May so that they could increase their assistance.

“We certainly believe that it’s necessary to continue, if the situation continues to deteriorate, to increase the practical help we give to the Syrian opposition,” Mr. Hague told reporters. “We think that as things stand today, there is going to be a very strong case for further amendments to the embargo or the lifting of the embargo.”

The Syria crisis was at the forefront of discussions here as foreign ministers gathered for a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations.

At a lunch meeting convened by Mr. Hague and attended by Secretary of State John Kerry, the Syrian opposition reiterated its request for antiaircraft and antitank weapons, according to Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the rebel delegation.

Syrian opposition representatives also said they planned to establish a presence in areas that had been wrested from Syrian government control within the next four to six weeks. The goal would be to buttress the opposition’s efforts to present itself as a viable alternative to Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, but it raised the question of how opposition forces could defend the enclave against the Syrian government’s air force and Scud missiles.

Among the opposition members who attended the meeting was Ghassan Hitto, a naturalized Syrian-born American citizen who was recently picked by the opposition coalition to serve as prime minister of an interim government. The question of how much, and what kind, of support to give the armed groups fighting the Syrian government has been hotly debated within the Obama administration.

Mr. Obama rebuffed recommendations last year by David H. Petraeus, who was then the director of the C.I.A., and other key members of his national security team for the United States to funnel arms to carefully vetted members of the Syrian opposition. But as Mr. Assad has clung to power, partly because of weapons supplied by allies like Iran and Russia, the White House has moved incrementally toward more support.

Another factor that has influenced the Obama administration’s calculations has been the growing popularity and prowess of Al Nusra Front, the Qaeda-affiliated group that has been battling the Syrian government.

The expanding role of Al Nusra has raised the prospect that Islamic extremists might seize control of much of Syria if Mr. Assad were deposed, and it has strengthened the case of proponents within the American government for providing support to moderate elements of the Syrian opposition.

In February, Mr. Kerry announced that the United States would provide food rations and medical supplies to the Free Syrian Army. The C.I.A. has also run a covert program to train Syrian rebels in Jordan, officials say.

Now, Mr. Obama is poised to expand the nonlethal aid. An administration official, who declined to be identified because the aide was discussing internal deliberations, said the White House had “blessed the concept” of increased assistance. But, the official added, “There are a lot of details still to be worked out before there’s something concrete for the president to sign off on, and before anything would be delivered.”

Mr. Kerry and other foreign ministers concerned with the crisis in Syria are expected to gather in Istanbul along with the Syrian opposition in 10 days to consider further steps. That session could be a venue at which the United States might make clear what additional support it is willing to provide. The European Union’s embargo on shipment of arms to Syria will expire at the end of May, unless all 27 members vote to extend it — an unlikely situation, diplomats said, given the strong opposition of Britain and France to the ban. European sanctions against the Assad government are also scheduled to expire.

Several analysts said Washington’s decision to expand its nonlethal aid would be helpful to the rebels but probably was not sufficient to alter the balance in Syria’s civil war.

“It’s not going to turn the tide in the battle, but of course it helps,” said Joseph Holliday, a fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, a nongovernmental research organization.

The challenge for the United States, Mr. Holliday said, was to offer aid that would allow it to gain influence with elements of the opposition that might be part of a post-Assad government.

Mr. Kerry has said that the United States is still interested in fostering a political transition in which Mr. Assad would voluntarily give up power, and has argued that stepping up support for the Syrian opposition would be a way to increase the pressure on the Syrian leader.

A senior State Department official told reporters that the group of foreign ministers was expected to issue a “strong statement” on Thursday on the need to address the crisis. But because of Russian opposition, the official said that there had been “vigorous discussion” about how the statement should be worded.